To start running again, feel it.
I couldn't figure out why I was finding it so difficult to start running again. A chance re-discovery in my wardrobe unlocked my mojo.
What is going on with my running? Why am I finding it so difficult to get myself out for a run?
I figured it out this weekend, and I just got back from a 1.9k run.
It felt great.
Let me tell you the psychological connection I made with my past self that got me out of the door.
My identity as a runner has come up a few times in recent weeks. When I gave a community talk in Wellington, I was introduced as an ultra-marathoner. I ran my last ultra-marathon in 2013. I didn’t know the introduction was going to go this way, but it got me thinking. I kind of liked being reminded about this achievement, and this part of my identity which had been so present in my not-so-distant past.
And just over a week ago, I was talking over on Aotea Great Barrier Island, and the subject of my running the Wharf2Wharf Marathon there in 2012 came up lots in conversation too.
All this got me thinking about my identity as a runner, and how, with two pre-schoolers and a school-aged child, I didn’t feel myself or see myself as a runner any more.
I didn’t like this idea much.
I resolved to figure a way through this.
A while ago, I was asked to advise on how we can increase the number of people wearing masks in the community. I firmly rooted my answer in the idea of social identity. This is the idea that if we think of ourselves as having a particular identity, then we are more likely to act in a way that fits with that identity. So, if you’re trying to give up smoking, you’re more likely to be successful if you act in the way a non-smoker does.
You adopt the identity, and the behaviours follow.
It’s a little more nuanced than the three sentences that i just wrote. For example, it helps if it’s a socially desirable identity that you’re adopting. If you’re being attacked in your community for wearing a mask, it’s going to be far less likely that this is an identity you’re going to want to adopt.
You’ve got to want it.
So yeah, I wanted to be a runner again. So I need to act like a runner again. But when I went out for a run, I still didn’t feel like a runner.
What was missing in my identity as a runner that I hadn’t started adopting yet?
This weekend, I figured it out.
I was going through my drawer of exercise clothing, and buried down the bottom were my Skins. Skins compression clothes are designed and cut to hold your muscles against your skeletal frame in the right places, to help improve muscle focus and awareness proprioception. Prorioceptors are the nerves in your body that let you know what you body is doing.
I pulled out my long exercise leggings, shorts, calf sleeves, short sleeve top and recovery leggings too. I had forgotten how much I lived in these when I was running and recovering, especially during and after longer distance training runs.
I laid them out on the bed, and my thoughts were immediately filled with memories of running with the Serpentine Running Club in London, and long-slow half-marathon length training runs around Richmond Park at the weekends.
This was the missing ingredient.
I didn’t just need to start running again.
I needed to literally feel like a runner again.
To embody running. To feel my muscles being swaddled, supported and aligned into running again.
My plan was to run on Sunday morning. But a weekend of terrible sleep because Miss2 is going through something or other (again) meant that I was in no state to put my experiment to the test.
But this morning, it worked.
I warmed up with a 40 minute coastal walk. I got home, and slipped into my running gear. The full gear. Long skins leggings, compression top, shorts and running top slipped over this base layer, and then my Under Armour Hovr Sonic 3 bluetooth enabled running shoes. Also wearing my Apple Watch, using the Map my Run app linked to my shoes, and my Cynaps v2 bluetooth conduction headset running cap. I’ve always been about the tech too.
Thus cradled and connected, I ventured out of the door and floated through a 1.9km run. Relatively speaking, of course, after not running for so long.
I got home and jumped into a cold shower and then into my recovery leggings. I’ll wear them for the rest of the day.
I feel like a runner again. Not just in my head. But through my body too.
Hey team - I just wanted to update that I managed my first 5km in years today. Got into my rhythm after the first 2k, and 3-5km felt much more like I was hitting my rhythm. The data tells me that this was when I started hitting my cadence and stride length goals. 34 minutes to do 5km was also about 2-3 minutes quicker than I thought I would be not having managed much more than 2-3km for years. My standard 5km used to be a touch under 30 mins. But, heck I'm satisfied with that today! Sitting in my recovery tights and listening to Prince now to celebrate :)
Keen to hear what you thought about this post. I've noticed today that apart from connective tissue around my ankles, I have almost zero soreness or other noticeable changes after my run yesterday. Incredibly encouraging. Now, I just need to pace myself to no more than 3-4 times per week.